Archive for category Economics
EU’s flagship green scheme siphons cash from consumers and employers to energy fat cats
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Environment, European Union, Press Release on 04/01/2012
Emissions Trading System shrinks economy but not Britain’s carbon footprint
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is siphoning billions from industry and consumers to plump up finance and energy fat cats, according a new Civitas report. The report reveals that, via the EU ETS, each EU citizen is effectively subsidising the power industry by £30 a year. [p. 13] In addition, the Government is adding more costs to UK families and businesses via the carbon price floor which sets a minimum price for carbon credits. This carbon price floor is expected to push another 110,000 British households into fuel poverty by 2016. [p. 61]
CO2.1, by David Merlin-Jones, is a comprehensive examination of how the EU ETS fails at its own goal of reducing carbon emissions. It details how carbon traders, banks, energy companies and the government are extracting billions from productive businesses and consumers via the EU ETS, while undermining the vulnerable UK economic recovery.
Is there any room at the inn? (or anywhere for that matter)
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 20/12/2011
Yesterday the FSA set out new rules for mortgage lending. The new rules were positively received as a way to prevent the excessive risk taking that occurred in the run up to the financial crisis when people were clearly sold unaffordable mortgages. This tightening of the standards comes almost a month after the Government pledged to back mortgages for first-time buyers, another move that was widely supported as a way to stimulate the housing market. Is there a contradiction though between subsidising lending and tightening up standards?
Stephen Clarke: Why we need to manufacture a new kind of graduate
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Education on 07/12/2011
IT is not just higher borrowing and lower growth that is grabbing the headlines. Despite the Government’s attempt to rebalance the economy, Britain is struggling to increase goods exports and the resurgence in manufacturing hoped for by ministers is not coming.
It is a question seldom asked when discussing the country’s economic woes, but is Britain producing the right graduates to increase manufacturing output?
Read the rest of the comment piece in the Yorkshire Post here
Rise in STEM subjects disproportionately due to overseas students
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Education, Press Release on 05/12/2011
Universities are educating 6,000 fewer British engineers a year than 10 years ago
British universities are adding fewer STEM subject graduates to the labour market than total student figures suggest, according to a new Civitas report. The STEM subject push by Stephen L. Clarke finds that the number of overseas students attending British universities to study engineering increased by 12,308 from 1997 to 2007, but that the number of British engineering students declined by 5,769. [p. 3] As a result, the British economy will struggle to find the skills necessary to drive a production-led recovery.
Why economic growth is faltering and what we can do about it
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Press Release on 14/11/2011
Government’s mistake is to misunderstand the scale of de-industrialisation
The Government wants economic growth as much as anyone. Why isn’t it happening? A new report from Civitas argues that growth is faltering because the Government has been solving the wrong problems. The Coalition thinks that the national debt and global warming are the biggest challenges we face, but according to A Strategy For Economic Growth, our main problem is de-industrialisation. The report suggests ten things the Government could do.
It’s déjà EU… all over again
Posted by Natalie Hamill in Economics, European Union on 10/11/2011
By Scott Benson
On 10th October, a vote of no confidence, which was tied to plans to enhance the European Financial Stability Facility, forced Slovakian Prime Minister Iveta Radičová to step down. Exactly a month later, the Greek and Italian Parliaments have put similar pressure on their respective leaders to resign.
